On both of the days that my group has been on medical, we have been surprised with an unexpected adventure. On our first day of medical, our wonderful driver Anandan decided we needed to take a trip the beach after working hard for a few hours, and who are we to argue? So we drove about an hour to a beach where we though we would just hang out for a few minutes and take a few pictures. But when we got there, there was trash everywhere (which shouldn't have been a shock, but it always is) and it smelled horribly bad. We thought we were just going to leave, but Anan talked a couple of fishermen into taking us out a little ways in their boat. So... we went boating! It didn't look like the safest boat I've ever seen but as we all say here, "what the heck, we're in INDIA!" The fishermen took us out a few miles and around to the other side of a small peninsula to the fishermen's port. Over on that side was a colony of fisherman and also some really old Indian ruins. It was SO COOL! While we were exploring the ruins we each found some pretty seashells to take home and some even found a starfish. It was really neat to be able to experience a little Indian history and also enjoy a relaxing boat ride. On the ride back we saw a group of women bobbing up and down in the water. One would go under, be missing for a while and then after what seemed like forever pop back up again. We were all curious as to what on earth they were doing, and then the fishermen explained that they were pearl diving...how cool is that?!
yep... we rode in one of those
we're on a boat...YAY!
a bunch of ladies pearl diving
an old tomb
Indian ocean
For our medical day this week we weren't expecting any grand adventure, but much to our surprise we got another one! After working in the Vandular leprosy colony Anan took us to a nearby zoo! I've been to zoos before as had many others in the group, but a zoo in India is a whole other story! We were in a bit of a time crunch so rather than walk around the zoo we rented bikes for 25 rupees (which works out to be less than 50 cents) and rode around the zoo. The bikes were really awkward and most had extremely dysfunctional brakes, but how many times does one have an opportunity to ride an awkward bike around a dirty zoo in India right? Many of the animals I had seen in other zoos in America, but there were also many animals that I had never seen before, such as a water buffalo, strange birds and white tigers. I adored the white tigers. If I could have a pet tiger, I totally would. One animal I never thought I'd ever see in a zoo though is a deer...I mean a deer? Really?! I see deer so often at home. Whether running around in people's yards or dead on the side of the road, they are just everywhere so it never occurred to me that they might be considered rare and interesting somewhere else. They were even considered one of the main attractions. Speaking of main attractions... while we were there to observe cool animals, it seems everyone else at the zoo dropped what they were doing to observe us. While visiting the zoo, we became the zoo. Many of the people see tigers, monkeys and elephants all the time, but a group of white people? Now that's another story. People would stop walking to watch us ride by and others would stop us and ask us to shake their child's hand or take a picture with them. As fun as it is I don't think I'll ever get used to being famous in this country. It was a lot of fun getting the speed tour on the awkward bikes... I felt like I was going to fall off every other second, but luckily I made it without getting any new scratches or scrapes, which I must say is quite an accomplishment in my case.
When we had seen all we wanted to see and had been seen by enough strangers Anan surprised again with a trip to pizza hut! We had no idea there even was a pizza hut in this country. And I have to say it was the most amazing pizza I had ever tasted in my life. I do realize that that could be a result of having very little to compare it to in this country but... it was still incredible.
yeah, watch out for those deer... they'll stare a hole right through you
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